I started the brew ten days ago but the sg wont drop below 1016. Contacted Muntons the kit supplier and have been advised to stir the brew and test again in three days time. Im using a Boots beer maker's thermostatic heater. When ready it will go into my Boots aluminium pressure barrel with 100 grams of sugar. Anybody else had this problem?

If you want to be VERY naughty, you could add the equivalent amount of warm water, some citric acid or lemon juice and some sugar, (can't remember how much, because I never did it, personally...... honest) and make a mash which can be distilled into a form of poteen.

My first wife was a paddy and I laid on a half gallon jug of single potato poteen......

Jayzus, even the priest was crawling around the floor, whimpering...... I overheard the landlord behind the bar saying, " Queer ******* wedding this, haven't sold a single short!"

All OK now. Have siphoned into pressure barrel with 100g sugar. How long, do you recon, before I can sample a wee drop?

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You should wait a week at least, though sampling a bit every day from now on is tolerated (purely for reasons of quality control and empirical research).

On a serious note, it is worth taking a sample just to learn how the taste alters over time. It will be quite sweet with the new sugar, which will ferment out in about 4 days. Then the bitterness will mellow out and, in slower time, the residual yeast will slowly ferment the more complex dextrins.

It also teaches you the eternal lesson that you need to get another brew on much earlier than you had imagined.

...It also teaches you the eternal lesson that you need to get another brew on much earlier than you had imagined.

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That's no lie. Brew every two weeks if you can. Your friends will appear out of the woodwork, making this a necessity. Get them involved as well, so one or two of you always has something on the go that needs sampling.

I cracked open the first couple of bottles from my Coopers lager starter kit at the weekend and was pretty impressed (they are now 2 weeks post bottling). Clear, no yeasty taste, but you can tell it is not a strong lager (around 3.5%). Coopers talk about adding 2 of their sugar drops to a 0.75l bottle, though my set came with .5l bottles and instructions to add just one drop. The beer is not flat, it pours with a good head, but that goes fairly quickly. That is the only downside to what is certainly a drinkable beer. I now have bought a new bitter from Wilkos which talks about adding half a spoon of sugar per bottle. I assume the Coopers sugar drops (which I have a fair few left over) will still do the same job?

There's several ways to prime the beer. Use a spoon, make a solution and use a syringe, or make a solution and mix all of it into the whole brew at one go (without aerating it and using a sanitised spoon to gently mix it in).